We’ve decided to expand our podcast outside of just design to cover creativity and art in general. We were kind of already doing that with our episodes about drawing and photography, but now it’s official. We’re kicking off our new, broader topic by discussing the difference between art and design.

In this episode, we bring in an expert: special guest Grant Barker. Grant’s hung out on our Slack channel for a while now, and always has good input. In this episode, we discuss his field of design: user experience—explaining what it is, and then focusing on how it relates to the Christian worldview.

In this episode, David starts making a #everyday project on his Instagram and Joe contemplates starting something similar but slightly less intense. This prompts the main topic, which is fear of the blank page and how to get started making stuff when you aren’t given any direction.

In this episode, David shares why he switched back to OS X after his brief, but astonishingly painful Windows excursion. The main topic is how experienced (or even new) designers can avoid stagnation and continue to challenge themselves to get better.

In this episode, we start off by explaining our recent near-hiatus and what we’re doing to make sure we put out content consistently. Short story, the podcast will be switching to once every two weeks, but we’re going to try to supplement with written content and possibly Youtube videos. Our main topic is the hardware announcements from Apple and Microsoft, and what the future looks like for designers in terms of hardware and software. It seems like Microsoft now cares more about creative professionals than Apple, and that has prompted one of the hosts to take what some might call drastic action…

In this episode, we discuss the design of each of the major political parties in the U.S. presidential election. Although had this discussion significantly before the election, we didn’t get the episode edited and released until after the election was over. It was probably for the best, though, because you were totally going to let our opinion influence your vote, right?

In this episode, we talk about the new iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, then move onto our main topic: how having nice gear and software can help and hinder your work as a designer. We apologize for this episode coming out so late.

In this episode, we discuss photography. A lot of designers pursue photography as a hobby and it’s played a part in both of our design philosophy and style. We discuss how photography has effected our design and how design has effected our photography.

In this episode, we discuss how much learning to draw can help a person become a better designer. We also talk about whether or not learning to draw with paper and pencil is important to learning to draw and learning design.

In this episode, we discuss the prevalence of terrible design and typography in otherwise good Christian theology. We also tackle the issue of designers making ugly heresy beautiful and appealing to potential readers. We talk a little bit about the importance of adorning good theology well, and throw out some suggestions for people designing church websites. In case we didn’t make everyone angry, David awkwardly tries to briefly explain the position of the Scottish Covenanters.

In this episode, we discussed how one improves as a designer: how designers can get better at using their tools and also expand into other styles or kinds of design. As “Most Improved Designer – Hillyard, WA – 2015”, Joe knows this issue and is pretty brilliant in discussing it.*

In this episode, we were prompted by the epidemic that is Pokemon Go to talk about apps that aim to have a positive impact on your life. Topics include Pokemon Go, Apple Watch circles, Carrot Todo, and overall gamification of our lives. We wrap up by talking about whether or not the idea of gamifying our prayer lists and Bible reading is a good thing.

This episode features the most famous beer-drinking, filmmaking, podcasting reformed Christian designer who’s ever been on Helvetic: Les Lanphere from the Reformed Pubcast! In this episode, we talk about how he got started in graphic design and filmmaking, his plans for the Calvinist Movie, how Christians can (or can’t) shape culture through design and filmmaking, and the service: VidAngel.

Note: Due to a communication error, the audio from this is lower quality than usual—sorry about that.